Shadows
by Starlit Serenade
Summary: I am responsible for so much more than I ever imagined. Military. My brother. Living. Survival. It all melts together in a waterscape painting. My actions are my brush, and my tears are the paint. Life has already taken so much from me, so what are a few more drops to a canvas already soaked?
1. Prologue

_**Prologue…**_

_The girl before him drew a bated breath, fear and careless bravery glinting in her eyes. He had seen her before-a child in the streets, orphaned at the age of five. She had played in the park, imagining friends to keep away the terrible loneliness that came with not having parents. _

_Her cheek had been cleaved at by some unknown recent oppressor, the dark sticky liquid dripping down her pale face as she clutched a small bag and a bread bagel tightly to her chest. _

"_Go away." _

_The man, draped in official military attire, firmly placed his balled fists to his hips. _

"_Didn't you here me? Go away!" Her meek voice, demanding him to disappear from her sight, as if a thirteen year old thief could have so much power. _

"_You know I can't do that," he tried to be gentle. Caring for his own son gave him certain sympathy for children, even if Nema were much younger than she. The girl spat at his feet, a gross and bloody blot soaking into the dirt of the backstreet. _

_He had heard of her before, knew that her fierce recklessness drove her apart from the other children her age. Instead of searching for another home, she had abandoned the one she had been placed in hightailed, living on thievery and dining on trash for the past four or so years. Many saw her tattered clothes and caked face and shoo'ed their own children a long, not particular on letting such a little beast around to influence the actions of their more proper offspring. This latest report, another bag of cash stolen and a bread roll to confiscate, had driven home with many. No one knew what to do about the beastly young girl who couldn't seem to accept companionship. _

_This was were Olhine AuBoné had drawn the last straw, and today he was going to make a change in her life. She was thirteen, a runaway at nine. His intention was clear; take her in whether she liked it or not, and teach her. _

"_What's your name?"_

_The questioned seemed to catch her off guard. It was as if she had to ask herself the same thing-to see if she even remembered what people used to call her. She eyed him with a strange and someone hopeful distancing. "What will you do to me if I tell you?"_

_He gave her the best smile he could. "Give you a home."_

"_And If I don't want one?" her reply was immediate, as if she had expected what he was going to say, which could have been likely. _

"_I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead."_

_This response, however dull, seemed to satisfy her. She took an ever so careful, jumpy step forward. "Ill run away if I don't like it," she warned._

"_I wouldn't expect any less of you."_

_This earned an appreciative half smile, and she inched little closer to him. "Lucille. My name is Lucille."_

_Satisfied, Olhine held his hand out to her. "Come along then, Lucy. Lets get you cleaned off." _

_She didn't take his hand, much to what he expected. But she stayed within three feet walking distance of him, and didn't seem to be immediately planning to scramble away, so he took this as a good sign. _

_A sign that eventually, he'd bring back her trust in humanity. Even when the monsters clawed for them outside of the very walls they stood against._

"Lucy! Lucy, come on!"

Groggily, I sat up in my bed, scratching the top of my head and yawning obnoxiously. "Nem-yaoooh. Stop beating my bed post, I'm up, I'm up."

The thirteen year old, blue eyed boy glared at me as he peeked up over my towering bedside. "You're really lazy, you know that?"

"And you're annoying," I playfully tousled his hair as he staggered back and gave my hand a mock look of disgust.

"Gross, Lucy. I don't know where your hands been!"

Rubbing the remaining sleep from my eyes, I gave him a glowering stare. "Says you. You look like you've been through a junk yard."

It was true; Nema AuBoné (who looked every bit like his father) was covered from the waist down in dirt and grim and grass stains. It seemed he had spent the morning wrestling bears and being over all exactly what he was-a young boy.

"Go wash up, and Ill start breakfast. Fathers coming home this afternoon, and we need to finish up your lessons by then."

The brunette gave me a cheeky grin before scattering off to do as I told him. I had been living in the AuBoné household for the last four years, and through those years I had grown close to the scampering child in the washroom. Our father, Olhine, had taken me in long ago and taught me anything I didn't already know and I was instructed to pass it along to Nema as a caretaker and tutor whilst he was away on his missions. It never really occurred to me to worry about him. It just so happened that even though he was always travelling beyond the wall, I didn't truly know what he was ever up against. So I had never feared it. I came to know later that it's dangerous to never fear a Titan.

I pulled back my hair in a half pony and got to work on the cleaning of the kitchen; sweeping and dusting, mopping and cooking. Olhine was a precise and orderly man, and his household never reflected any less than that-a rule I greatly abided. Minutes later, a blur ran passed me and to the dish bowls in the sink as Nema fished out a clean bowl, grinning back at me. Fridays were porridge days, and since he had become accustomed to my presence long ago, porridge appeared to be his favorite that I could serve.

Spooning his helping, I pushed away my own untouched bowl and dug through a cabinet of supplies, tossing him a stack of papers and a few pencils. "Get to work, Nema. Grammar is your weakest subject."-I raised an eyebrow at his protruding tongue in my direction. "And apparently, so are manners."

He shot me another cheeky grin as he pulled out the first sheet and began to write hastily, pulling sips of breakfast into his mouth at the same time. It wasn't the first time I had seen him so excited. It was like this every once or twice a month. We would wave Olhine goodbyes and Nema would push back tears. Then a few weeks later, he would come home, smiling and brandishing some new present for him to play with and offering me allowance and maybe a ribbon for my hair.

I respected Olhine for that gesture alone. If there was anything I loved more than my makeshift family, it would be money. Not in the egotistical, or greedy sense though. I saved every penny I was given, because to someone like me money was a scarce and beautiful thing. And truthfully, deep down in the back of my mind and heart, I feared I would wind up alone again. And if I did wind up that way, I would be ready. I would be prepared to take on the world again as I had before, those memorably wretched few years ago.

Nema had been about eight or nine when his father brought me home. It must have been strange to see, a sopping wet young teen girl standing in his living room, glaring at everything that made this very house a home. Olhine had sat down and explained to him, "Remember when I told you about the less fortunate?..Always do good things for people…yes…this girls name is Lucille, Nema. She's your new sister."

I had refused to speak to him for weeks, and when I was enrolled in school, I had started up more trouble than I was worth. Stealing, skipping lessons and getting into fights with boys twice my age and size were all apart of my resume. But Olhine never gave up on me. And Nema seemed to like me anyways. So I took on the role of big sister and obedient daughter, with some coaxing, and years later I had acquired a fair amount of respect. But there was always that possibility lurking in the back of my mind, like black whispers of smoke on a porcelain white chalkboard. The whispers of the cruel little demons who played with me in those foggy playgrounds in my nightmares and of the endless nights of trash digging and being beaten hairs away from death by strangers. The whispers that swore up and down that one day they would take me back and never let me go.

"_Dad?"_

_A frightened young boy stood in his fathers study, clinging his little fists in tight balls at his sides. _

"_What is it, son?" His father had several books open on his desk, and the light peeking through windows spoke of an incredibly early morning time to rise. "You shouldn't be awake so early, so go on. What is it?"_

"_Why does she scream like that?" The boy seemed to say the words without thought, clutching his hand to his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes as though he had said something offensive and immediately regretted it. _

_The man gently set his parchment aside and eyed his son through thin rimmed spectacles. "A bold question for a young boy, but I suppose you deserve to know."_

_He beaconed his son to come closer, and he did, shivering as the cold morning chill passed through their cottage house. _

"_Do you know where she came from?" Olhine asked the young Nema gently. _

"_Not really," the boys eyebrows furrowed. "I've never asked."_

_He eyed the man with genuine concern. "I've always been too afraid to ask her. You know she isn't the easiest to get along with. Most everybody is afraid of her."_

_The man placed a warm hand on the boys head, giving him a comforting pat and a small smile. "She's like those children from the books you read, son. She was plucked from the shadows and ended up here with us. The shadows still try to hurt her though. They give her nightmares. She screams at night because though she'll never admit it, they scare her."_

_The boys frown deepened, understanding dawning on his face. "How sad…"_

I had been watching through a crack in the door that night, and at fourteen I finally had something to name my inner demons and fears. They were simply shadows. They weren't, however, the only thing in life that should be feared.

Today would be my first realization of that.


	2. 1: When Things Change

_**Shadows**_

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin, or anything related to them. I only own Lucy, Nema, Olhine, Kaizar and later Amethyst. Im a lover of OCs. Also keep in mind that though I tried to keep it as close to the actual plot (Anime show) as I could, there are probably going to be some differences. It's a fanfiction. Theres always difference. So without further hold up, here is the first chapter. :3

Enjoy!

~Star

()~()~()

"You should eat, Lucy."

I glanced up from my appalling thoughts, Nema giving me a concerned and gentle look. He gestured to my untouched bowl. His own empty one had been slid aside and replaced by school work I had given him for the day. Scribbled numbers and lines on a page. Mathematics.

"I suppose you're right," to satisfy him, I scooped a spoonful of the lukewarm mush and worked to swallow it without immediately retching the bile I felt and tasted in the back of my throat. I had spent the last half hour feeling unnaturally queasy, which in my experience was never a good sign. I had felt similarly before, but always when something was about to go terribly, horribly wrong.

The night my parents vanished.

The day I was put into the foster care of a rotten and heartless family.

The night I had been beaten mercilessly close to death for pick-pocketing a few quarters from a drunken gang member.

Common sense would dictate that I would have learned from these experiences to trust whatever strange, natural instinct I had, but when you have no idea what could be wrong on a day when the sun was out and the sky was almost cloudless, there was really nothing you could do.

"Lucille? You're really pale. Are you okay?"

I really needed to get a grip on myself or I was going to terrify the poor kid. Shooting him what I hoped would be a reassuring smile, I began to basically shovel more of the mush, swallowing it down in single gulps to keep it from coming back up again. It felt morbid and disgusting, but for Nema I would do it.

"Im just excited, that's all! It's hard to remember to eat when you're excited," I gave him a wink. "Now quit worrying, and hurry up! Ill do the dishes, you just worry about finishing your studies."

He seemed like he was about to protest, like he was unsure that he should believe me. As I began to busily move around the kitchen again, he seemed to relax and went back to his studies.

It was strange to me, how much this kid had grown up since I had come to know him. He had grown up quite a bit. The young boy who had been much shorter than I was had sprung up like a tree, at least four inches above my own height-even if I was short. The adorable fluffy cheeks I used to pinch and tease had somehow found a chance to shave away, turning him into more of a man than a thirteen year old boy. A lot like Olhine. They were both brunette with smoldering gray eyes, a complete contrast to my strawberry blonde-green eyed self. Nema was like an apparel counter part to me. He appeared so much tougher than I was, more refined.

But he was still the same kid who couldn't always spell as well as he wanted, and stopped to hand out bites of chocolate to the younger children who played in the street, and cried when he brought wounded animals to our father. In his delicate and pure nature, it was no wonder Olhine didn't send him for official schooling. School was where bullies and tyrants laid their tracks. And no one should ever be allowed to soil the bright imagination that Nema had somehow been graced.

I stood at the sink, thoughts reeling through my head. I felt so sick, and dizzy, and nervous and cold. It was unnatural to get such chills on a spring day. I placed the last dried dish in its place and walked briskly from the room, acting as though I was going to freshen up in the washroom. Instead, I ran to the nearest window at the farthest point in the house from the kitchen and wretched the contents of breakfast out of it. The bile was unmistakably disgusting, and with every new wave of nausea I became more exhausted, more puckered with sweat, and more nerve racked.

In complete truth, I was scared. I wasn't even sure why. But I slid to the floor and hugged myself when I was done, my body wrecked. I shook violently with the chill, and placed my head between my knees, ordering myself to breathe deeply and slowly.

I suspected what my fear was-what if Olhine didn't come back today. He had been the only father I had ever really had. The only person who had ever been there for me to witness my fall and my rise into the person I am today. He had healed my cuts, and my bruises. He had taught me how to write, and how to draw. He showed my tricks, taught me to defend myself properly. He was there to touch my arm and pat my hair when I cried, because for the longest time I wouldn't even let the caring man hug me.

And now I was so terrified. So scared to lose him that I couldn't focus. Two missions ago, he had come back to us badly wounded; broken bones and deep cuts. He had fallen from an extremely high tree when he had gone after a titan. And titans were the worst sort of demon to become caught up around.

Olhine wasn't just some member of a military branch. He was a member of the Survey Corps, the group of fighters with the highest death tolls yearly. They ventured outside of the walls, on horse back, scouting for supplies and information where ever they could get it. Within the first year of recruitment, most members wouldn't return alive. Titans were a vicious and man eating race. Olhine once described them as extremely tall, fat and ugly humanoid creatures who fed on humans for no more reason than just to do it. I had never realized, truthfully how dangerous his work was until he came back that day.

We lived inside of Wall Rose, far and safe from the damage of the titans. His mission was to exit Wall Maria, the outermost wall, to collect reports for a survey experiment they were conducting.

It could all also be in my head. Losing people had been what I was used to, what I had always known. I couldn't shake the feeling that it would happen again. And with Olhine out of my sights, that desperation became worse.

()~()~()

We stood among the huge throng of people, awaiting the arrival of all the teams who had gone out on recon outside the walls. Olhines team had been one of the four or five that had gone, and as members and leaders started to gallop past on their horses, we were drowned in the cheers of the crowd. Our heroes had returned.

Nemas eyes scanned the crowd, watching as they sped past. We were both scanning, desperate to see the one familiar face that would comfort us and offer words of encouragement to us. Worry and nervous excitement swam around us, which was totally unnerving. I was becoming antsy, fidgeting on my feet. Nema wrung his hands together, clutching his handkerchief in his balled fists.

And then we saw a familiar face-even if he wasn't who we were looking for. Olhines second in command, Kaizar, reared his horse. Something was wrong with that. Olhine would be leading the line if he was safe and sound. And if we could see Kaizar and not him, then something was horribly, utterly wrong.

My heart pounded in my chest, my breath hitched, and in the space of a second, my feet charged me forward. I shoved people out of my way, desperately clinging to a single thread of hope that I was just hallucinating. It couldn't have been real. But I had to know. I didn't have to look behind me to know Nema was right on my heels, and together we plowed through the crowd, ignoring shouts of protest in our wake.

I tried to barrel right through the guards who stood to keep watch of the crowd, but they caught my arms anyways. My vision blurred-I was probably crying.

"Let me go! Oh god please let me go! I need to talk to them!"

They tried to reason with me, but I refused to listen. One shot and my knee connected with the crotch of the guard on my left, and I rammed my elbow into the back of his neck as he doubled over. As he dropped like a stone, more guards made a grab for me. I was wild with terror and anger. At what, I wasn't sure yet.

"Let her go."

I was immediately released, and I wiped my eyes on my sleeves before anyone would notice the blurring water.

"Kaizar! What happened? Where's my father?" Nema had finally caught up (it seemed sometime before he had stopped, caught in a mesh of the crowd).

The tall and lean second in command slid down from his horse, motioning the other members of Olhines team to ride ahead.

Never a good sign.

My fists clenched. Unclenched. I shook with some unknown tension. My stomach was doing somersaults, the sound of bells ringing in my ears. A hand clutched my arm-Nemas hand, warm. A comfort. At this point, it was hopeless. We both knew the truth. We would simply have to hear it.

Everything that happened next felt slow. Drowsy. Intoxicated.

"I'm so terribly sorry, Nema…"

_Olhine chided the young Nema for being so careless. The young boy only whimpered. He had suffered a serious scrape on the knee, and had immediately run for his father to help him. Olhine continued to clean the knee with a cloth, wiping away all the dirt and grim so the wound wouldn't fester or get infected. He wrapped it in bandages and gave the boy a soft smile._

"_There, see? Nothing scary. Its all done."_

"…Lucy…"

"_Why cant you be like other girls your age? All you do is fight others and steal things! Does that seem like a proper life for a young lady like you?" _

"_So what if it did? Its not like Ill be here long enough for you to judge what I can and cant do anyways!" _

_Olhine seemed to deflate. "Lucille…"_

_She only glared and looked away, pushing his outstretched hand away from her. She ran passed him, out into the streets. He didn't move to stop her. _

"We did everything that we could…"

_Nemas eyes welled up. The poor kitten howled, its leg twisted in an incredibly unnatural direction. "Father, please say you can save him."_

_Olhine gently felt around the cats soft and downy fur. The feline groaned a garish, agonizing growl. The poor thing was in so much pain. _

"_I cant promise that I can, Nema. But Il try. And he went to work on the little cat they later named Marcy._

_I lay on the kitchen table, soaked in bile and sweat and blood. I couldn't seem to stop shivering. I couldn't seem to stop screaming. I was covered in my own blood and drool. It seemed every bone in my body was broken, and ached with such a fire that I couldn't see or think straight. It was hazy. Everything blurred together. The lights went in and out of focus on me. I couldn't speak. I couldn't think past the unbearable pain. I just kept seeing the faces of the men in my head, and kept feeling the memory of the rustle of some ones soft hair against my face as they carried me back home and tossed me harshly onto my very doorstep, where I had lay in a crumpled heap, bleeding from the bones that tore out of my skin like nasty needles through fabric. _

_I don't think I had ever been beaten so harshly before in my life. I was crying. I was screaming. I was vomiting. Hands pushed my needled bones back into my body. Shadows reached for me in the edges of my vision. I should have blacked out by now. Why was I awake? Was I really strong enough to handle such pains? It seemed so doubtful. _

_And the lights. They distracted me. Made me feel numb. Secluded. I might finally be free, if I just focused on the rainbow essences of strange color. And suddenly before me were pretty gray eyes masked by a cloud of brown hair. It was my father. And he was crying. Sobbing for me to hold on a little longer, that he would fix me. It was the last thing I remembered, as his tears fell onto my face and my blood clouding my vision, I finally passed out._

"Nothing we could do could save him."


	3. 2: The Lion on the Silver Chain

Shadows

Chapter 2

_I'm gonna try and get these updates out ASAP, but its not always easy when your in school, Band, Theatre, and taking virtual classes in a foreign language. XD I promise I'm still making loads of plans though!_

_~Star_

()~()~()

_In the immediate hours after Olhines death reached us, we prepared for life alone. Or at least I prepared. Being older, the responsibility of overseeing the household and being a caretaker now fell on me. It wasn't common for a seventeen year old to not be in the military at this point, but Olhine had strict regulations regarding Nema. Those regulations included my work as a teacher and housekeeper (as well as a sister). _

_The military, however, was now one of my biggest considerations. Nema had family in the outcrop of the Shiganshina District. As uncomfortable as I was with the idea of sending him there when we lived in the protection of Wall Rose, I knew better than to rule out the idea. The military would not be my first choice-but it would be my last hope. If I survived basics, I would be able to send my earnings back to Nema for proper schooling and his housing quarters. _

_It was the biggest option Kaizar and I had discussed after I had sent Nema upstairs to wash off. The Auboné family in Shiganshina weren't fans of me being adopted into their bloodline, but the aunt, uncle and cousins adored Nema. As unwilling as I would be to watch him leave my side, it would have to be necessary if I could secure a job elsewhere. There was also the matter of sending him to school, if the job was full time. _

I sat stone faced, my finger tips grazing across the small wooden box with gentle, fragile care. The last remnants of my fathers love for me. Lucy was carved across the small lid, in his finely tuned handiwork. My birthday-or rather, the anniversary of the day he adopted me-was a month away and this had been the present he had left for me. My eighteenth birthday. And he would never again see how far I had come. I would never again be able to express how much he truly meant to me, regardless of our past clashes.

Nema didn't fair any better as he stood across the mahogany table. His hands clasped around a pendant that had been Olhines. The family crest glistened between his pale fingertips, a jewel that had been passed down the Auboné bloodline for generations. Olhine had dropped it before being defeated, and Kaizar had scooped it up upon their retreat back to the walls. It now belonged to Nema, a precious family heirloom that held a vast and honorable history. Nema, however, couldn't seem to bring himself to wear it.

It had been several days since the news had reached us, and it still hadn't seemed to sink in for him. I, on the other hand, still tried to keep things as normal as possible. Tutoring had been postponed, mostly on the account that Nema refused to pick up a pencil and spent to many strange hours of the night wandering the house with out proper sense for wherever he would be going. I would often wake from a nightmare (to common for me by this time to find them threatening) to be startled by the fact that I would find him laying on my floor, sprawled out with a vacant expression on his face.

When that happened, I would promptly straighten my sheets and pull him on to the bed with me while I would hold and ruffle his hair. He wouldn't allow himself to weep anymore-but his sorrows were so clear they didn't need tears. A boy like Nema was much to delicate for a world such as this one.

As the only member of the household who was close to adulthood, I was now responsible for everything-which meant that I would have to take up a part time (possibly full time) employment placement if we were to survive comfortably.

_Survive. Live. Comfort. Trash. Hunting. _

I shook away the thoughts. I wasn't homeless anymore. I wasn't alone. I couldn't disappear again. I had a young boy to look after now. Responsibilities to withhold. Strict curriculum to adhere to. I had saved enough of my allowances to pass a few months at best, but I would need a more direct way to get enough money to live on and quickly. Financial issues kept me from breaking down. They also kept me from opening my box. I would push the present to the back of my mind, avoiding it almost at all cost. I knew that if I opened it, all of my emotion would break from its shell. As guilty as it felt not to properly mourn him, I couldn't allow myself to falter.

Nema stood still, staring out of the kitchen window blankly. I was starting to worry about him-it wasn't healthy for a boy his age to act so strangely. I didn't question his actions, however. Misery has its own ways of healing itself. And if he thought even for a moment I pitied him, he would hate me.

So I sat again, at the mahogany table with paper and pen in hand. I had spent the last hour pining over offered jobs, but most of them had requirements or time areas that I couldn't work with because of one obstacle or another. Nema being home all the time, unsupervised, was my biggest issue. I gripped the pen tighter, aggravated and frustrated. It felt like I was stuck with no alternative but to quit, but I would be damned if I would ever have to watch Nema taken in by some strange unknown family. I had learned long ago that foster care wasn't always right. Humanity was by default the surviving, possibly superior race (except when involved with titans) but humanity was also harsh and unrealistic, horrid and unmoved.

There wasn't any way I would subject Nema to that, regardless of how desperate any situation was. Which is why when push came to shove, I would send him where his family was. They may have hated me, but they loved him. He would be safe.

"You're running out of options, aren't you, Lucy?"

His voice came up so suddenly in my thought cloud, I reared back with a small start.

"What?"

Nema continued to finger the chain and crest, his eyes thoughtful as he watched me across the space of the room. "Your ears went pink a little while ago. That only ever happens when you feel trapped. Not to mention, you've been staring at those job ads for over ten minutes and haven't turned the page. You keep glancing at me. Its only logical that I'm the reason for all of your worrying."

In this moment he looked so much older than his age. Brown hair slightly disheveled as it always was. Grey eyes that reminded me of a cats. He was calculating and figurative, not unlike himself. He was always so much better at reading people than I was. Better at being social. Better at making people believe in things.

"Lay it on the table for me to see."

I cocked my head quizzically at him.

"Your thoughts, Luc. Lay them out for me. I can take it," He pulled out a chair and sat across from me, tapping the tabletop with his index finger for emphasis, "I'm not a child anymore. Tell me what you're planning."

A more empathic person might have been compelled to cry in that moment. Maybe tears would well up in their eyes as they watched their only family shed their final skins of childhood. Maybe they would clutch the table with white knuckled hands as they shook with emotion and despair. Instead, I gave my younger brother a once over.

"I'm thinking about joining the military."

He watched me for a long, dragging moment. I wasn't sure what to expect- a fit of rage? Dozens of pleas for me to do anything but that?

He simply watched me, contemplating his reply. "Which branch?"

"I don't know. I was thinking the Military Police. I could get you into Wall Sina safely. You would live there without poverty or worry."

His eyes glazed over for only a moment, but he blinked and the look vanished. "So what about before then? While you're in basic?"

"Shiganshina."

Nema raised an eyebrow at me. "Where Aunt Emily and the others live?"

"Yes. They love you dearly. I can trust them with you until I can have full custody and transfer you deeper within the walls to wherever I'll be."

"Then do it."

He said it so simply, made it sound so easy, that all I could do was stare at him. Here sat a boy whose father had died mere weeks earlier in a military operation, and he was giving me the okay to go off and join the same military?

_He really has changed._

"…I probably will, Nema. I probably will."

()~()~()

In the next weeks, I had written Emily and Allen Auboné a detailed letter expressing my intentions and willing them to take Nema under their care. I would send allowance for the extra food and schooling and space he would take up, and would try to make regular visits.

Their reply was as immediate as it possibly could have been. They would take him in.

Sick with relief, I sat on the floor of my room the night before Nema would go to Shiganshina and I to basics and formation training. It was the first time in a few weeks that I could sigh, relieved, and simply lay on the floor in the quiet of midnight. Something caught my eye in the corner of the room, under my bed. Perking up, I realized what it was. The box Olhine had designated for my eighteenth birthday. It was two weeks away, but I was compelled to pull the box out and see what it contained. I was alone-Nema, exhausted from packing, had turned in much earlier. Ever so slowly, I slid the wood lid from its placement and pulled a piece of parchment from the folds of cloth.

_Lucy, _

_Its is your eighteenth birthday. What a lifetime it has been, to raise you and watch you triumph._

_You truly are a young woman of great courage. You have sacrificed much in the young years of your life. _

_Yet in all of that, you have never given up. It is why I have entrusted the care of my son to you. No hands are more capable to watch and teach and care for him then yours. _

_Take this gift, Lucille, and remember that you are an Auboné, true as any blood bond could be. You have strengths others will fail to have but always desire. _

_Survive in this world, _

_And flourish. _

_Olhine_

I clutched my hand to my mouth, to damper gentle sobs. He had accepted me as a daughter long before I had ever realized it. I leaned back against the post of my bed, breathing heavily. Before I could contain myself, I started sobbing uncontrollably. I hadn't properly mourned Olhines death since it had happened. Tonight I would do exactly that. I held the box close to me, reminded even more of my universal acceptance.

There nestled in the folds of soft blue cloth was a choker necklace made of silver. The metal shined brightly in the light it glinted, and I was brought to tears. Latched onto the gorgeous piece was a full replica of the renowned Auboné family crest.


End file.
